Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [93]
Between stops in Louisiana and Alabama for UFC 17 and 18, SEG took the show to São Paulo, Brazil, home to a number of fighters on the card.
I trained and helped with the starts of two new referees, brothers Mario and Fernando Yamasaki. Both spoke English and Portuguese, a definite plus given our surroundings. Mario and I would end up being good friends, and he stayed with the promotion, later to be added to the regular referee rotation.
UFC 18
“Road to the Heavyweight Title”
January 8, 1999
Pontchartrain Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
Bouts I Reffed:
LaVerne Clark vs. Frank Caracci
Evan Tanner vs. Darrel Gholar
Mikey Burnett vs. Townsend Saunders
Tito Ortiz vs. Jerry Bohlander
Pedro Rizzo vs. Mark Coleman
Pat Miletich vs. Jorge Patino
Bas Rutten vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka
Future stars Evan Tanner and Bas Rutten made their debuts, while Tito Ortiz returned to the UFC after a brief stint as a college student at California State University Bakersfield. Fans claimed I tried to help Rutten win against Kohsaka with too many stand-ups, but it never happened. As an interesting footnote, I went back to Rutten’s corner to check on him before going into overtime and heard him tell his cornermen, “Tell me when there’s a minute left,” because he was going to knock out Kohsaka. I laughed at the thought because it wouldn’t be that easy. But with sixty seconds left, Rutten did just that. Babe Ruth couldn’t have done it better.
The highlights of Ultimate Brazil, which took place nearly five months to the day following UFC 17, included Belfort’s steam-rolling of striker Wanderlei Silva in forty-four harsh seconds. Another unforgettable moment was Pedro Rizzo’s rousing knockout of Tank Abbott at the eight-minute mark of their heavyweight tug-of-war. Rizzo, a quiet, likable guy, was the protégé of UFC 7 winner Marco Ruas, who’d tutored his pupil in the art of muay Thai. His potential seemed endless.
SEG added another rule to the list following UFC lightweight champion Pat Miletich’s first title defense against Lion’s Den scrapper Mikey Burnett. Burnett had been scheduled to meet Miletich in the finals of the lightweight tournament seven months before at UFC 16, so SEG was really anxious to make the match happen here. But Miletich grabbed Burnett’s shorts to control his hips to prevent himself from being taken down. I told Meyrowitz afterward that this wasn’t a jiu-jitsu match; fighters shouldn’t be able to use their opponents’ uniforms to control or to create advantageous positioning. Soon SEG added the rule.
Another vivid memory of Ultimate Brazil was Tito Ortiz showing up to the small arena with his manager at the time to pass out little trading cards he’d made of himself. It was the first time I’d seen a fighter make a concerted effort to market himself, and I was impressed by Ortiz’s ingenuity and marketing savvy. He’d learned a thing or two from Tank Abbott in terms of self-promotion, but Ortiz had some legitimate fighting talent as well.
On the plane ride home, I stood in the back and talked to Ortiz for hours, brainstorming ways he could get himself out there more. I was surprised to learn Ortiz and Abbott had had a falling out and Ortiz believed this was the reason he hadn’t been invited back to the UFC in a while.
I didn’t know if Abbott was keeping Ortiz out of the show or what, but he definitely wasn’t helping his former student get back in. I told Ortiz I would ask John Perretti, the new matchmaker, about him.
In the Octagon with my friend and fellow referee Mario Yamasaki at UFC 20 “Battle for the Gold” (May 1999
Ortiz would return to the next show, UFC 18, in New Orleans and defeat Jerry Bohlander.
I liked Ortiz and could see he was a good person who was willing to work hard to make it. Well ahead of his contemporaries, he had a keen understanding of the fans and treated them like gold, making time for anybody who approached him. I thought Ortiz could do something special in the sport.
The question was whether the